


give me one room to come home to

by mapped



Series: the way that big moon needs that open sea [1]
Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Campaign 01 Season 02: Fantasy High Sophomore Year (Dimension 20), Canon Non-Binary Character, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, F/M, Getting Back Together, Kissing, Multi, Other, Polyamory, Reunited and It Feels So Good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:15:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23618860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mapped/pseuds/mapped
Summary: Every instinct in Sandra Lynn’s body is screaming at her about how awkward this situation is and how she must have been out of her mind when she agreed to this. She slept with somebody who turned out to be her partner’s ex, and instead of burying the whole thing as far underneath the earth as it can go and pretending it never happened, she decided to let her partner invite his ex to dinner.But she remembers all the books that Jawbone’s given her to read about polyamory. This is a real thing that other people do. She doesn’t have to stay stuck in thinking that there’s only one normal way to do relationships, when that way has never worked for her in the past.Sandra Lynn, Jawbone and Garthy take things slowly.
Relationships: Ayda Aguefort & Garthy O'Brien, Jawbone O'Shaughnessey/Garthy O'Brien, Sandralynn Faeth/Garthy O'Brien, Sandralynn Faeth/Jawbone O'Shaughnessey, Sandralynn Faeth/Jawbone O'Shaughnessey/Garthy O'Brien
Series: the way that big moon needs that open sea [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1710910
Comments: 62
Kudos: 196





	give me one room to come home to

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is dedicated to that one time Ally Beardsley said the word compersion on an episode of D20 (The Unsleeping City) and nobody noticed. Ally, you are a true hero. Thanks so much for finding out that Jawbone and Garthy have definitely fucked.
> 
> Title from the poem ['Maybe I Need You' by Andrea Gibson](https://buttonpoetry.com/andrea-gibson-maybe-i-need-you/).

**I. Garthy**

Ayda tells Garthy about the books on autism that Jawbone gave her. She’s radiant, bright in a way that isn’t just down to her innate fire, and Garthy glimpses the woman she’s growing to become, which is not the woman who raised them at all. This Ayda will be different. Warmer because she’s received more warmth in her life. Happier because she knows she doesn’t have to be anything other than who she is.

When Garthy first met her—the previous her—she’d already been lonely for too long, and they were barely more than a child, too wrapped up in their own problems to figure out that adults had their own problems, too.

Then she was reborn, and Garthy had to raise her. And well, wasn’t that fucked up? She’d taken them in when they were cold and miserable and alone in the world. Her blazing wings forming a circle around them until they stopped shivering. That had been the first Garthy had ever known of safety and sanctuary.

They grew up determined to provide the same thing for as many other people as possible, knowing how important it had been for them. How life-changing. But trying to do that for the only person who had ever taken care of them when they’d been young and floundering? Losing their only parent and having to become one at the same time?

It felt impossible. Garthy’s never been able to stop worrying if they might’ve made a complete mess of it.

Looking at Ayda now, her eyes like the stars she’s spent so many years gazing at through her telescope, Garthy feels too many things at once to name.

They want to ask, _You met Jawbone, when you were little. Do you remember?_

But what they do is smile and say, “That’s wonderful, darling. I couldn’t be more thrilled for you that you’ve found someone to support you and help you figure this out. I’m only sorry I was never able to do this for you.”

“That’s okay, Garthy,” Ayda says. “I’m the librarian at the Compass Points and I never even knew there were books like this. Much of what you know was taught to you by my previous self, and much of what I know, you have taught me. So it’s understandable that this is a gap in both of our knowledge. But now you too can fill this gap in your knowledge.”

She hands Garthy a book, and they take it.

* * *

These are the facts that roll around and around in Garthy’s head:

Ayda is Fig’s girlfriend. Sandra Lynn is Fig’s mother. Jawbone is Sandra Lynn’s partner. Sandra Lynn looked beautiful in Garthy’s bed, strong toned arms spreading Garthy’s legs apart, long brown hair falling across Garthy’s thigh. Sandra Lynn and Jawbone broke up, but now they’re back together again. Jawbone looked beautiful in Garthy’s bed too, years ago, in his human form, a body made of lean muscle and scars with all sorts of fascinating stories behind them.

Garthy’s heard from Ayda that Jawbone is always half-wolf now. It’s a political statement. Garthy’s never seen Jawbone’s wolf form, but Garthy’s never seen a lot of things about this new, fabled Jawbone. Jawbone the guidance counsellor. Jawbone the father.

Perhaps he would have been a better parent to Ayda than Garthy has ever managed.

_Jawbone says that this is normal. I’m normal._

They read the book about autism, and even though Ayda didn’t seem to blame them, they go to sleep wondering why it had to take Ayda this long before she learnt this about herself, and whether this means that they have failed, as a parent, as a child, as a friend.

She had only known Jawbone all of a week before he changed her life, just like that. Garthy has known her for two lifetimes, and have they ever really done anything for her that meant as much as this?

* * *

Garthy thinks about asking Ayda if they can use the door in her room to go to Mordred Manor. They just want to thank Jawbone for what he did. And it would be—good, to see Jawbone again. To catch up.

They think about it.

Then they think about writing a letter instead, for Ayda to take through. Something simple, friendly. Brief and to the point.

They write the letter. They put it in a drawer. They sleep with a cute halfling who has a tongue piercing and who wants Garthy to tie them up. Garthy much prefers being the one who’s tied up—Sandra Lynn had guessed that about them nearly instantly, somehow—but they’re also nothing if not flexible and accommodating.

In the morning, when the halfling has left, Garthy burns the letter.

* * *

“Jawbone says that he knows you.”

Garthy so rarely sees Ayda now. They suppose that it’s just part of being a parent. Learning to let your child go, and getting used to all this empty space which they used to take up. But Garthy just never expected Ayda to go so far away. She’s been here on the Leviathan for hundreds of years, looking after her library. Was it unreasonable for Garthy to think she would never leave?

Then again, she isn’t really so far. She’s just a door away.

Just one door.

Right now though, she’s across the table from Garthy, drinking her tea, a plate of avocado toast in front of her. Garthy only recently added that dish to the menu at the Gold Gardens, but they’ve been doing this together every Sunday since. Ayda says brunch is an important ritual in Solace.

“What did he say?” Garthy asks, trying to continue eating their own plate of sausages and eggs as normal.

“Only that you’re old friends who haven’t seen each other in a long time.” Ayda finishes cutting her toast into neat slices. “But then Kristen told me you two were paramours. Not that she used that word exactly. Is that accurate?”

There is absolutely no way Garthy can carry on eating. They put down their knife and fork and contemplate ordering some alcohol. They understand that people do drink champagne and such, at brunch. “She’s not wrong.”

“Why didn’t you say so before?” Ayda looks curious, which is the expression she always wears most beautifully of all, her eyes quiet and intent, like candles that burn through the night.

“Well, like Jawbone says,” Garthy pauses, just to breathe, “we haven’t seen each other in a long time. I wasn’t sure if he even remembers me.”

“I have only ever had one paramour but I am not sure how I could ever forget her,” Ayda declares. “I can say for certain that Jawbone remembers you, because he would like to visit and he wants to know if that’s okay with you. Would that be okay with you?”

Garthy’s hand trembles, just a little. They burnt the letter because Jawbone had been the one to leave, all those years ago, and they wanted Jawbone to be the one to come back. And now they have their wish, and it’s dizzying. “Yes, of course. Please tell him that I’d be delighted to see him.”

“I will be sure to tell him that.”

Ayda eats her avocado toast as enthusiastically as she always does. When Garthy asks her about Fig, the flame of her hair crackles like joyful laughter. She looks young and happy and in love.

Garthy was like that too, once.

* * *

Garthy has never seen the Jawbone who is standing at the bar in the Gold Gardens before, but he is still just as familiar as every shanty Garthy has ever sung, and the sight of him rouses as much sweeping emotion in Garthy as shanties do, rolling like a wave over them.

They take a moment to collect themself before striding into Jawbone’s field of vision. “Hello, old friend. Can I get you something to drink?”

Jawbone starts, but then he grins, enormously, his eyes roaming over Garthy. He’s always been shameless. Garthy should’ve put on a shirt, at least, but it’s too late now. “Garthy O’Brien!” He squeezes Garthy’s shoulder. “You look… wow. Better than ever.”

“Darling, so do you. I like this a lot.” They gesture at Jawbone, indicating all of him. “The wolf thing. It’s bold. Ayda told me it was a political statement. Color me impressed.”

“Yeah?” Jawbone scratches the back of his head. “I know it’s really off-puttin’ to some folks. I mean, that’s why I do it as a political statement, but… Boy, it would’ve been a bummer if you were one of those folks who can’t deal with it.”

“I always knew you were a werewolf, O’Shaughnessey.”

“Yeah, but it’s one thing to know something in the abstract and another to have to confront it in reality, ain’t it. Not that I thought you would be one of those people, but you just never know. I have lost friends over it.”

“You and I both know we’ve lost friends over things we can’t and shouldn’t have to change about ourselves. But that’s how you know the ones who stick around are worth it.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Jawbone holds Garthy’s gaze.

Garthy is the first to look away, to wave a bartender over and order drinks for them both. Now they’re glad they didn’t wear a shirt. Already it’s too hot in this room, packed with patrons as it is every evening.

When they have their drinks, Garthy wades through the crowd to take them to the table that’s been reserved for them. They sit down, and Jawbone takes the first sip of his root beer. “So, I see you’ve done a fine job of raising Ayda.” He licks the foam from his mouth. “She’s an amazing young woman. So strong and brave and loving. What a wonder.”

“I think I might’ve done better if you’d been here with me.” Garthy mulls over their own rum. They’re a pirate down to their core. “All that stuff about her being autistic… You were the one to show her that. I wish I’d known. I should’ve been able to help her better.”

“Hey,” Jawbone says, softly. “You did your best, and your best was outstanding. You grew up an urchin on a floating pirate city in the middle of the ocean and you’ve been here all your life. It’s different in Solace. You have plenty of expertise in things I don’t. Besides, this wasn’t stuff I’d have known years ago, either. I had to study. And I could only study when I had the right resources at my disposal. When we first met, I was a mess who couldn’t have taken care of an egg, and we both know it.”

Garthy blinks. “An egg?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s what they make kids do in some Solesian high schools, apparently. They give them an egg to take care of for a week or somethin’. To try and make sure they understand how difficult it’ll be to take care of a real kid, so they don’t go around gettin’ each other pregnant and all that.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s the best way to teach kids about safe sex, either. The point is, I would’ve smashed that egg right away. I was so self-absorbed, back then. We were both so young. I’d barely seen anything yet.”

“You already seemed pretty worldly to me.” Garthy feels… shy, almost. Swilling the rum around in their glass, thinking about what the two of them had been like, in their twenties.

“Oh, I’d already seen some shit, yeah. But the world had so much more in store for me. I wasn’t ready for any kind of responsibility. When I saw Ayda back then… I thought she was a sweet little kid. But the idea of having to take care of a kid? It was terrifying. You did a much better job than I would’ve, at that age.” Jawbone slaps Garthy’s back lightly. “So don’t be so down on yourself, all right, pal? You’re a great parent. You raised someone who would _literally_ go to hell and back for the people they love.”

Garthy smiles, a tear welling at the edge of their eye. “Right. I still can’t believe she tried to flood the Nine Hells.”

“Fig talks about it all the time.” Jawbone laughs, and swigs at his root beer, before a more serious expression overtakes him. “Don’t get me wrong, though, Garthy. I wouldn’t have been a good parent to Ayda if I’d stayed, but that doesn’t mean I don’t wish sometimes that I had stayed, anyway.”

Amidst all the chatter and the jaunty fiddle playing somewhere in the room, Jawbone’s voice is quiet, but Garthy hears him clearly. In the low light Garthy puts down their glass of rum on the table, the ice clinking softly, and instead drinks in Jawbone’s face: his coiffed mane, his shrewd amber eyes framed by wire-rimmed glasses, and his rueful smile. Everything about him golden and brown and lovely, all the colors that fit right in here at the Gold Gardens.

Garthy remembers how they’d asked Jawbone to stay. In a hazy room in this very building, blowing white smoke through their mouth and reaching for Jawbone’s hand, they’d asked him. _Stay here. You can have anything you want here. You wouldn’t need to pay for any of it. We love each other and we both know how to let each other be free. You know we could be good together._

“Jawbone,” Garthy says, and doesn’t know how to continue. _Stay now. Stay tonight. You look like you’ve always belonged here. I still want you as much as I always did._

“I’m glad I saw more of the world. But a lot of it wasn’t good. Life was much harder than I thought it would be. And until the so-called Bad Kids came along and took a chance on poor ol’ Jawbone here, you were the best thing that had ever happened to me by far.” Jawbone’s smile wobbles, and Garthy wants to take him in their arms and pull them both back into the past, shedding the last fifteen years like dead skin, but they don’t know any magic powerful enough to do that. “And when I was down on my luck I used to think I missed you just because I wasn’t doin’ so good, but now I’m happy and I have a partner I love very much and a family to call my own again, and you know what? Turns out I still miss you. That never went away.”

“Why didn’t you come back? If you missed me.” Garthy picks up their rum again, caressing the cool glass if only to have something to do with their hands that isn’t yearning to touch Jawbone’s fur. But the way Jawbone watches their fingers running up and down the side of the glass—well, that’s worse.

“Because I was in a sticky situation more often than not, and I mean, it was _literally_ sticky a lot of the time. And when I wasn’t… It’s not easy to get out here to the Leviathan. I thought if I saw you again I’d never have the resolve to leave you a second time. And you would still have a kid, which was still a problem for me. It wasn’t till a few years ago when I started to have more of a relationship with my niece Tracker that I realized I’m actually all right with kids and I didn’t feel so panicked and useless around ’em anymore. And by then it had been ten years and that’s a long time to go without seeing someone and assume they would still want anything to have to do with you.”

Garthy thinks about the letter they wrote and never got Ayda to pass on, where they tried to keep it simple and friendly. _How do I even begin to thank you for what you’ve done for Ayda? Nothing gives me more pleasure than to hear you are well. To think that my darling Ayda and your newly adopted daughter Adaine are best friends, when the two of us haven’t spoken in nearly fifteen years… Life is exactly as strange as your stories have always made it out to be._

What they’d really wanted to say was: _Do you think we’re bound by the universe, somehow?_

They tip the glass to their lips and a mouthful of rum burns sweetly down their throat. “And then your partner came here and slept with me without knowing anything about all of that.”

Jawbone snorts. “Yeah. She did that.”

“You two are all right now?”

“Yeah. We’re working on it. We both want a relationship where we’re open to seeing other people, but this is new to her. Being honest about who she loves and wants and that being okay. She’s worried she’s gonna be jealous if I sleep with anyone else, but I’ve been talking about it with her and giving her things to read and helping her figure out what to do if she ever feels jealous. But I think she just needs a bit of time, so. You know I wanna ask you if we can go to your room, but that can’t happen yet.”

Garthy swallows. Jawbone’s honey-mead eyes are too much. He used to look irresistible in black, in leather jackets and ripped jeans. But even in a cardigan he makes Garthy’s head spin. “You know what my answer would be if you asked,” they say, their voice as wispy as smoke.

Jawbone smirks. “Which is why I’m not asking. But I think that you should come over and visit us in Mordred Manor. Say hi to Sandra Lynn. Have dinner with us.”

“I wouldn’t want to make things awkward for Fig and Ayda.”

“They can handle it. Fig already knows you slept with her mom. We’ll stay out of their hair.” Jawbone chugs the rest of his root beer and swipes at his face, with a satisfied sigh. “I know we’re gettin’ old, but we can’t let the kids stop us from havin’ some fun.”

“Those kids _did_ try to stop me and Sandra Lynn at least three times, it feels like,” Garthy says, laughing.

“She told me.” Jawbone laughs too, and it sounds beautiful, like a wolf’s roar filtered through a kaleidoscope for sound, if such a thing could exist. “And she said the two of you had fun, anyway.”

Garthy smiles, slowly. “We absolutely did.”

Under the table, Jawbone’s knee knocks against theirs, and Garthy feels young again, and stupidly happy, and halfway back in love. 

* * *

**II. Sandra Lynn**

Telling Jawbone about Garthy has officially been the weirdest experience of Sandra Lynn’s life. But good weird, not bad weird.

When she broke up with Jawbone over the video call she hadn’t really given him any details. In her experience, people generally don’t want details when you’re telling them you cheated on them. And anyway, Garthy wasn’t the only person she’d cheated on Jawbone with. So what she said was, “I’ve been cheating on you, I’ve slept with multiple people even though I made you agree to be monogamous with me, and I’m really sorry. I know I fucked up, but I don’t trust myself to not keep fucking up, so I think it’s best if we break things off.”

No details, very straightforward.

But then when she got back to Mordred Manor she had to face the fact that she and Jawbone got this place together and moved in literally only a few weeks ago, and she’d loved him and wanted him to be her future. She arrived first, ahead of the kids in the van, landing on the lawn on Baxter. She looked at the massive house before her, gloomy and crumbling and groaning faintly in the wind, and Jawbone sitting on the porch with his mug of tea as though nothing had ever happened.

He smiled at her and pointed to the other mug on the table. When she walked closer she could smell the fresh coffee he’d just made for her, and she burst into tears. His arms wrapped around her, warm and solid and _home_.

She still loved him, still wanted him to be her future.

That night they sat across from each other at the kitchen table, after the kids had all disappeared into their various rooms. Jawbone said, “You know I don’t have a problem if you want to sleep with other people. All I want is honesty, Sandra Lynn. I want us to be on the same page. I want you to be happy.”

She thought about the woman she loved—maybe the first person she ever loved—when she was still young and naive, the woman who’d been married to someone else but promised that her husband meant nothing to her in comparison, that Sandra Lynn was really _the_ one. She thought about how being that woman’s secret was like all the best and worst adventures she’s ever been on, that feeling of _This might just kill me but I’m totally fine with that_.

She thought about the secret she kept from Gilear for so many years, until Fig’s horns erupted. She thought about how he shrunk from the truth, not wanting to hear any of it, how it made him feel small and worthless and unloveable. How she recognized the devastation on his face because she’d looked like that too, when she was thrown out of that adventuring party and called a homewrecking slut.

She thought about Jawbone explaining polyamory to her, gently offering her this option, this freedom, and the fear that had crawled into her belly immediately. The fear that he was only saying this because _he_ wanted to sleep with other people, not because he was really okay with her doing the same. And if he wanted to sleep with someone else, it would mean he didn’t love her. It would mean she wasn’t enough for him, and would never be enough for anyone. And she couldn’t let that happen.

What she wanted was for once in her life to have a normal, _committed_ relationship, to prove to herself that it’s something she’s capable of doing.

She hasn’t been able to do that at all.

But what she _has_ proven to herself is this: she doesn’t love Jawbone any less just because she wants to sleep with other people. Which means that the same can be true for Jawbone, too. He can sleep with other people, and still love her as much as he says he does.

She came to this realization while sitting across from Jawbone at the kitchen table, and she smiled a little. She survived the Nightmare King’s Forest, and now she was sitting at home, eating tortilla chips with salsa as a late-night snack. On the way back to Solace, Kristen kept talking about her new deity Cassandra, and how fear wasn’t real. That was what the Forest taught them all: fear isn’t real.

Fear isn’t real, and she wasn’t going to lose one of the most important people in her life because of fear.

“I want you to be happy, too.” She took a deep breath. “If you want to sleep with other people, then—”

“Hold on.” Jawbone crunched some chips noisily. “Let’s start with something a bit easier. Why don’t you tell me about the people you already slept with.”

She pursed her lips, but she supposed that she was going to have to get used to this. To the idea of having a partner who really is okay with her seeing other people. “Well. I did sleep with Gorthalax a couple of times.”

Jawbone nodded. “It’s hard to resist an old flame. And he’s hot.”

She laughed. This wasn’t the first time Jawbone had made a comment of that kind about Gorthalax, but it was the first time she could actually relax and appreciate it without thinking about how she’d betrayed Jawbone’s trust. “He is hot. Like, literally, too.”

“Hmm,” Jawbone said, a sparkle in his eye, and she put her hand on his knee and leaned closer for a second.

“Yeah,” she breathed. “And he likes to pick me up and…” She bit her lip, drawing back. “Is this too much? I have no idea what you want to hear.”

“I wanna hear anything you wanna tell me, baby.” He seemed like he meant it, his face open and rapt with genuine interest. “And you know I’m into him and I’d be down for a threesome.”

“I don’t know if I could watch you with anyone else just yet.” But even as she said it, she knew she probably could, and that she would enjoy it. It just wasn’t easy to go against everything she’d believed all her life. The memory of being eighteen and in love and not being able to stomach the thought of the woman she loved being in bed with her husband, just the next tent over. _Maybe I could ask my husband if he’d be okay with us all having a threesome together, you know? I’m sure he’d think that would be hot._ The _no_ she’d spat out in response, shaking with humiliation.

But this was different. She knew this was different.

“That’s okay,” Jawbone said, patting her hand. “We’ll work out our boundaries and what we’re comfortable with.”

“Okay. So as I said, there was Gorthalax. But now he and Sklonda are exclusive, as you know, and he’s not the cheater. I am.” Jawbone squeezed her hand when she said this, and gave her a mild and forgiving look. “And so, after that… We were on the Leviathan, it’s this pirate city made of lots of different ships—”

“Yeah, I know the Leviathan, I’ve been there.”

She grinned, pushing her hair back from her face. “Of course you have. Well, I slept with a pirate there. Their name was Garthy O’Brien.”

What passed over Jawbone’s face then was like… lightning splitting a tree. “You slept with _Garthy_?”

For a second she couldn’t tell what was going on, but then Jawbone stood up and whooped, punching the air, and she realized Jawbone knew Garthy. Not only that, but they’d also slept together. “No way. You and Garthy…?”

“Oh yeah! This was many years ago, but yeah.” He sat back down. “Honey, it looks like we have the same type! With the exception of Gilear maybe. I’m not so into him. That man really needs to work on his self-esteem. I wish I knew how to help him.”

Sandra Lynn buried her face in her hands, helplessly. “I did also try to sleep with Gilear after I broke up with you but he turned me down.”

“That somehow makes me have more and less respect for him, simultaneously.”

Sandra Lynn spluttered. This conversation was getting more and more out of hand. “Okay. But Garthy. What?”

“I was twenty-something, a clueless young man, wanderin’ around Solace. I fucked this pirate in Bastion City—a different pirate, not Garthy—after we both nearly got caught smuggling. We weren’t working together, we just happened to be near each other when the cops came along. I’d jumped into the water to hide, but I was running out of air and I was _this_ close to drowning, right? But it was either that or getting caught. I really thought that was it for me, but then this air genasi pirate was also hiding in the water, and those air genasis—they can just hold their breath forever, right? Which is very handy trick, in my opinion. So he clearly liked the look of me and didn’t want me to get caught either, because he kissed me and shared his breath with me while we both stayed hidden beneath the pier, and then we fucked right there in the water. Then he told me he knew the best place in the world to spend any money I’ve been earning from smuggling, and he took me to the Leviathan and the Gold Gardens, and that’s where I met Garthy.”

That was a very long-winded story just to get to the _introduction_ of what she actually asked him about, but it’s one of the things she loves most about Jawbone. The completely ridiculous and completely unnecessary stories that he seems to have an unending supply of, and that he likes to trot out when you least expect them.

“You haven’t got any wild stories about Garthy to share?” she prompted.

Jawbone shrugged, looking distant all of a sudden, and his voice was soft when he asked, “Do they still taste like peach ’n’ mint ’n’ cucumber?”

Sandra Lynn swallowed, remembering the taste, summer-sweet and cool. “Yeah.”

“Their favorite hookah flavor.” Jawbone smiled. It wasn’t the smile of someone who was just savoring the memory of a fun hook-up. It was more than that.

“How long were you there?”

“Oh, I was only there a few months before I moved on. Nobody could make me settle down, back then. I had restlessness in my bones.”

She watched, calmly, as he munched on more chips. “But you were in love with them.”

“I was, yeah.”

She took a chip herself, scooping up salsa with it. “You haven’t seen them since?”

“Nope.”

“Would you want to see them again?”

“Sure.”

“I hear there’s now a door in our house that leads to Fig’s girlfriend’s room on the Leviathan. It wouldn’t be so hard to see Garthy again.”

Jawbone looked at her, holding her hand in his. “I really loved them, Lynn. What if I saw them again and we managed somehow to pick up where we left off? I mean, it’s been fifteen years, so I don’t know what the chances are of that happening, but if it does happen, that’s not just me sleeping with somebody else. That’s me being in _love_ with somebody else. Now I know for a fact that no matter what happens, it won’t change the way I feel about you. But is that something you think you’re ready for?”

“I don’t think I’ll know until we try.” She tangled their hands the other way around, so she could lift Jawbone’s hand to her lips and kiss the furry back of it. The fear coiled tight in her belly, but she knew it wasn’t real. “I think Garthy’s wonderful and I can hear it in your voice, how much you care about them. You shouldn’t stop yourself from going after them because of me.”

Jawbone considered this, and then he asked, “Would you want to sleep with them again?”

“Um,” she said, wondering how honest to be. _I’ve thought about it many times. Now that you’ve said that, I’m thinking about it right now._ She shifted in her chair. “Yeah. I had a good time. I wouldn’t say no to a repeat.”

And Jawbone got that gleam in his eyes, and Sandra Lynn felt warm all over. “Now do you wanna take me to bed and tell me all about it?” he murmured, fingers brushing over the bones of her wrist.

She shivered, and said yes.

* * *

And now Garthy’s in the same kitchen, and the three of them are sitting around the same table, eating the honey and goat’s cheese salad that Jawbone made as an appetizer. Garthy’s wearing a billowing white shirt, unbuttoned down to their chest, with the sleeves rolled up so some of their tattoos still show.

Every instinct in Sandra Lynn’s body is screaming at her about how awkward this situation is and how she must have been out of her mind when she agreed to this. She slept with somebody who turned out to be her partner’s ex, and instead of burying the whole thing as far underneath the earth as it can go and pretending it never happened, she decided to let her partner invite his ex to dinner.

But she remembers all the books that Jawbone’s given her to read about polyamory. This is a real thing that other people do. She doesn’t have to stay stuck in thinking that there’s only one normal way to do relationships, when that way has never worked for her in the past.

So she tries to tune into the conversation that Garthy and Jawbone are having.

“—very haunted,” Jawbone is saying. “And it’s falling apart. Which is why we got it for cheap.”

“It’s atmospheric,” Garthy says. “Look, I live in a pirate brothel, I like a place with a bit of a _mood_ to it. Also, I have to say, I don’t know about cozy cardigan Jawbone now, but this place definitely would’ve suited the old you very well.”

“Oh, I fell in love with this place as soon as I saw it.”

“Yeah, me too,” she chimes in. “I know it’s possible that the roof might collapse on us at any point, but I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather live. Though we still haven’t been here long enough to meet all the ghosts properly yet.”

“Have either of you ever fucked a ghost?” Jawbone—who else?—asks.

“Darling, if you’re about to regale us with your tale of how you had sex with a ghost, I say go for it.” Garthy smiles and takes a sip of their wine. “I’m all ears.” 

Sandra Lynn laughs and digs into her salad, finally feeling her hunger, knowing that she’ll have plenty of time to eat while Jawbone gets into his story.

And she’s right about that. She finishes the salad just as Jawbone finishes his story. She and Garthy exchange looks with raised eyebrows, and Garthy says, “I must admit that I can’t say I’ve _never_ thought about it. I’ve seen some handsome ghosts.”

She shakes her head. “I am putting my foot down now, nobody is having sex with any of the ghosts in this house.”

“Honey, ghosts are people too,” Jawbone says. “That’s not very nice of you to just rule them all out as a category like that.”

Sandra Lynn laughs some more, and Jawbone brings out the main dish, pasta with a thick velvety ragu that smells divine, and they talk and eat and drink and it all starts to feel okay. It starts to feel normal, just about.

* * *

After dinner, she goes to do the washing up, because Jawbone did all the cooking, and Garthy offers to help. She tries to wave them off, but they insist, standing beside her to dry the dishes after she’s rinsed them off.

Behind her she hears Jawbone slipping off to the bathroom.

“What was Jawbone like when you first met him?” she asks, scrubbing at a particularly tomatoey plate.

“He was in his human form back then, so physically it was quite the difference. Still very hairy, but not to this degree.” They smile. “What can I say? He was gorgeous. But there’s something about seeing him now that makes you love him more, because I really admire what he’s doing, you know? Living in this half-wolf form to show people there’s nothing wrong with who he is.”

Sandra Lynn nods, because it was one of the things that drew her to Jawbone initially. All the shame she’s lived with all her life, all the secrets she’s had to keep. She saw Jawbone’s pride in who he was, and it was magnetic.

“Personality-wise,” Garthy continues, “he was still young and figuring things out. I know that this Jawbone now—helping people is his priority. And he’s always been a very non-judgmental person, yeah, which makes him well suited to his current job, but back then he was mainly looking out for himself. I don’t mean he was ever deliberately unkind, but he just wasn’t so aware of hurting other people. He’s always been true to himself, you know, and I’ve always liked that about him.”

“Did he hurt you?”

“Only because he left me when I wanted him to stay,” Garthy says, softly. “But I think it was for the best, in the end. Look where he is now.”

“You should’ve seen the look on his face when I told him it was you I slept with. I’ve never seen anything like it. He literally stood up and cheered and punched the air. Who does that?”

“That’s Jawbone O’Shaughnessey for you.” Garthy laughs, and Sandra Lynn glances at them out of the corner of her eye, catching their pleased expression, the skin around their eyes crinkling, their gold irises glowing mellow. “Did he ever tell you the story of how he became a werewolf?”

“Yes!” She loves this story. “His first boyfriend wanted to introduce him to this other guy he was dating, and they all went to a gig together, but then afterwards his boyfriend went and hooked up with the lead guitarist of the band, so Jawbone was just left awkwardly hanging out with his boyfriend’s other boyfriend, and then they got attacked by some werewolves because it was the full moon and the other guy was actually a vampire, and werewolves and vampires have some kind of longstanding feud, and then Jawbone’s boyfriend suddenly reappeared and was _also_ a werewolf and was all like, ‘No, don’t kill this vampire, I love him!’, but he was outnumbered, and _Jawbone_ , who was pretty drunk at this point, jumped into the fight and got bitten, but then these werewolves he was fighting were weirdly moved, like ‘Look at this stupid human willing to sacrifice himself for the forbidden love between a vampire and a werewolf! This is so inspiring that we’re gonna forget the feud for tonight and celebrate this love!’”

“And then they all calmed down a bit and had a party in the park while Jawbone dealt with his first transformation,” Garthy concludes, smiling. “I think we can safely say, darling, that this night is going a whole lot better than that one.”

Sandra Lynn finds herself looking at Garthy’s lips. “Yeah,” she murmurs. “I think we can say that.”

Garthy takes a step forward, and for a second she thinks— But they’re just leaning past her to turn off the tap, their body hovering close for only a moment and no more.

“Best not to keep that running,” they say, a playful edge to their voice as they step back.

She dries her hands on a towel, gripping it entirely too hard. Jawbone ambles back into the room and there’s a moment when she tenses and thinks, _Shit, he could’ve walked in on us. I nearly fucked up again. Why do I always—_

And then Jawbone grins at them both and she sees the way he looks at Garthy, who is now lounging against the kitchen counter in that way they have of looking utterly relaxed and powerfully suggestive in their loose-limbed ease—which was what attracted her to them that night at the Gold Gardens, out of everyone in that bar. Silver eyeshadow glittering above their half-closed eyes, the half-unbuttoned shirt with the rolled-up sleeves somehow worse than if they hadn’t worn a shirt at all.

And she remembers that this is okay. She’s allowed to want to press Garthy up against the kitchen counter and kiss the hell out of them. It isn’t something she shoud be ashamed of, or hide. She shouldn’t be burying anything anymore. The first time she fell in love she had to fold her own heart up like a piece of paper, over and over until it couldn’t get any smaller, and then she had to swallow it up. Her heart still thinks that the only way it can carry on beating is if she makes sure nobody else can hear its thumping pulse.

But that’s not true.

The only reason she isn’t going to kiss Garthy yet is because she agreed with Jawbone that they would take this slowly. Not because it would be a bad and awful thing for her to do, in and of itself.

She twists the towel in her hand and breathes.

* * *

“How do you think that went?” Jawbone asks her later that night, when they’re getting ready for bed. He’s in his baggy sleep shorts, brushing his teeth, and Sandra Lynn thinks about how many times Garthy made him smile at dinner and how fondly he and Garthy looked at each other. She looks fondly at Jawbone now, toothpaste foam in his mouth, and tries to picture Garthy in this bedroom, not just in bed but brushing their teeth beside Jawbone, and it makes her feel something so strong and fierce and wild she has to hug her knees to her chest.

 _I’m jealous_ , she thinks with panic, before realizing that it’s only a thought, and that the name she’s trying to apply to the emotion isn’t the emotion at all. What she’s feeling isn’t jealousy.

It’s soaring in the sky on Baxter’s back, wind in her hair and the sun on her face, the air cold and crisp around her, smelling of green trees and living things; it’s the swoop in her stomach when he makes a sudden dive, which starts out a little like fear and then ends in exhilaration, in sheer and perfect joy.

All the things she thought she knew before about love were wrong.

“I love you,” she says. “And I think that went really well.”

* * *

**III. Jawbone**

Jawbone sits in his study reading up on some recent psychology articles, waiting for Sandra Lynn to come back from seeing Garthy in the Gold Gardens. This is what they’ve agreed: Sandra Lynn is going to spend time with Garthy, just the two of them, and she can do whatever she wants, so long as she tells Jawbone afterwards, and Jawbone is also going to spend time with Garthy, just the two of them, and he can also do whatever he wants, so long as he tells Sandra Lynn afterwards.

It’s easier for them to go to Garthy rather than the other way round, for several reasons. Jawbone knows Garthy doesn’t like to leave the Gold Gardens because outside of there, their magic is a lot weaker. And this way, if something happens it can happen in a space that isn’t Jawbone and Sandra Lynn’s shared bedroom.

He jots down notes in his notepad and hums along to whatever indie song he’s got playing in the background. It’s some random playlist that he found, but it’s pretty good and it’s helping him concentrate. Which he really needs, right now. Something to help him concentrate.

It’s just—Garthy and Sandra Lynn both mean so much to him. It’s hard to keep himself from bursting at the seams with hope. He wants this to work, so terribly. And he knows everything has been going incredibly well for him since the Bad Kids gave him a chance to turn his life around. He has a partner and a daughter and a house, and he’s _happy_. It’s probably too much to ask for more.

But he’s had to live through some long, shitty years. Now he just wants to _love_ as much he can. That’s all he’s really asking for.

There’s a knock on the door, and Sandra Lynn walks in, shoves the door shut behind her, and slumps against it immediately. “I _know_ the door to the Leviathan was made for Ayda, but I wish it wasn’t in Fig’s bedroom. Is that selfish of me? Let me be selfish for a second. _I_ walked in on my daughter and Ayda making out very heatedly and then my daughter took the opportunity to grill me about why I was visiting the Leviathan, probably to distract me. Which worked well, I have to admit.”

He smiles. “We should have probably told Fig that we’re doing the poly thing now.”

“Yeah, well. I would’ve told her sooner, but… This is still so new, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to tell her yet.” She rubs at her temple. “But it doesn’t matter, she knows now.”

“Hey, come ‘ere,” he says, and she does, straddling his lap. “How did your evening go?”

“We talked. It’s funny, we were actually talking about Fig and Ayda. And how we sometimes feel like we’re fucking up as parents. I couldn’t believe that Garthy worries they haven’t done a good enough job as a parent. I’m not convinced we could have got to the Nightmare King’s Forest without Ayda’s help. She’s been such a positive influence on Fig—you’ve seen how much Fig has changed. But I guess we all feel like we have our failings and raising children is _not_ easy.”

Jawbone tucks a strand of Sandra Lynn’s hair behind her ear. “Honey, I think you did a pretty good job with Fig.”

“I’m trying. I think it’s been much better this past year. We actually know how to listen to each other now. But… Well, Garthy and I also talked about being queer and raising children who aren’t straight either. It’s weird, because… I’ve never told Fig about that part of myself. I mean, she knows I slept with Garthy, so I’m obviously not a hundred percent heterosexual, but I’ve never discussed that with her. The fact that I know I’m bi. But she doesn’t seem to be having a hard time coming to terms with her sexuality, so that’s good.”

“You don’t have to tell her, of course.” Jawbone brushes his thumb against Sandra Lynn’s cheek. “But it might be nice, if you felt comfortable bringing it up. I think she’d really love to learn that about you. You two could really bond over it.”

“Yeah, you might be right.” Sandra Lynn is quiet, probably thinking about it.

He kisses her forehead. “So. You and Garthy just talked?”

“Yeah.” She blushes a little. “That’s all. I… I really like them. I’ve never been in this sort of odd situation where I have what I think is going to be a one-night stand with someone and _then_ I go on dates with them and hold myself back from even kissing them because I’m trying to take things slowly, but…”

“You didn’t have to hold yourself back if you felt ready.” He slides a hand up and down the outside of her thigh. “You could’ve just gone for it.”

“I could’ve,” she murmurs, grinding down softly with a wicked light in her eyes. “But I didn’t. Because I want you to be there when I kiss Garthy again.”

He clutches at her hips. “What do you mean?”

“When I think about kissing them I think about the way you look at them and it just makes me feel”—she kisses him deeply, her hands tugging at his mane of fur, her hips rolling down against his as he gasps into her mouth—“like that. It makes me feel like that. I already know what kissing them is like. I don’t know what kissing them in front of _you_ will be like. But I think you wanna see it, don’t you?”

He growls, nuzzling her neck. He can smell the hookah smoke on her skin, the peach mint cucumber, like a half-remembered dream. “Baby, you’re killin’ me.”

She laughs, still pulling a little at his fur. “I never thought it could feel like this.”

“Maybe I should just ask Garthy to come over. We can skip the date with jus’ me and ’em.”

“No, wait.” Sandra Lynn’s hand is soothing now, combing gently through his mane. “I don’t want you to do that. They and you go way back. If you want to spend time with them alone, if you want to sleep with them without me there, I really would be completely fine with that.”

“Yeah?” He pulls away enough so he can look directly in her eyes. “Are you sure?”

She doesn’t avoid his gaze. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

There are countless reasons why he loves her, but this is one of them: the decisive grace with which she moves through her life, and how her body wears resolve better than anyone else he’s ever known. Something about her makes it seem like she’s always standing tall, like she’s ready to face anything.

But the thing that made him sure that they belonged together, the thing that made him confident from day one that they were right for each other, is that despite the way she approaches the world as though constantly expecting it to challenge her, it’s always been clear as day to him how much she just really wants to _love_ , with everything she’s got. She wants to love recklessly and with abandon, like she’s challenging the world in return to make her stop.

And Jawbone’s never, ever gonna make her stop.

* * *

Garthy’s taking him on a little guided tour of the Gold Gardens, which have expanded a lot since Jawbone last explored them fifteen years ago. There are so many more rooms now, and Jawbone loves them all. Loves seeing all these people having fun, being taken good care of, finding peace and respite.

“So what takes your fancy tonight, O’Shaughnessey?” Garthy asks, a hand lightly touching the small of Jawbone’s back. “A massage, perhaps?”

As much as he likes the sound of a couple’s massage with Garthy, Jawbone knows there’s only one thing that’s been haunting him for fifteen years. “Let’s smoke some hookah, baby.”

Garthy’s eyes sparkle like coins spinning in the light. “All right, darling. As you wish. We do have some new flavors in… How does lemon loaf sound?”

Lemon loaf turns out to be pretty great. Sprawled on the couch next to Garthy in their private lounge, Jawbone blows out the zesty-sugary smoke and says, “It really is so goddamn awesome, what you do here with this place. I thought about it all the time, for years.”

“I just want one place on the Leviathan where everyone can feel safe,” Garthy says, looking up at the ceiling. “I know how much having a safe place meant to me.”

“It’s the one place in the _world_ where I got to feel safe,” Jawbone says, probably a little too emphatically, but he means it, and he wants Garthy to know. “Whenever things got bad, I would retreat here in my head. I carried the memory of it with me always.”

“That makes me very happy that I was able to help you, even in my absence.”

“When I first met you here and I saw you in this place where you were just givin’ all these people what they needed, givin’ them _happiness_ , I felt like I wanted to be like you, one day. I know we’re like, the same age ’n’ all, but it still gave me that feeling of, ‘Oh, I wanna grow up to be like that person.’ You inspired me and I wished I could get to a place in my life where I could do the same thing. Help other people feel better. And for a while I could almost kid myself that drug dealing was me doin’ that, but it turns out maybe I got there in the end, finally.” 

“I would say, you definitely got there in the end. What you do helps people in a more meaningful way than I ever could.”

Jawbone waves his hand around. “Pfft, let’s not argue about that. But don’t you think you’re doin’ those Zajiri ancestors proud?”

“What?”

“You know, the ones whose job it is to fuck people into being decent?”

Garthy laughs. “Yes, you’re quite right. I am doing them proud.” They turn to look at Jawbone, their mouth gently blowing a cloud of smoke. “But really, I hardly feel like I can take any credit for what you’ve been able to achieve. That’s a very delayed result, if so.” They raise a thick eyebrow. “I fucked you fifteen years ago.”

Jawbone guffaws. Goddamn Garthy and their goddamn beautiful eyebrows. _Why don’t you fuck me again and see what happens this time_ , he wants to say. Instead he lets his eyes rake over Garthy’s tattoos, the flowers blooming around their torso, a more riotous garden than there used to be years ago. He traces a petal with one finger on Garthy’s chest, feeling the sharp breath that Garthy sucks in.

“O’Shaughnessey,” Garthy murmurs. “You tease. If you’re not gonna kiss me either I would appreciate it if you would stop touching me as though you intend to.”

Jawbone smiles, a little, and slides his hand down to Garthy’s waist, his thumb rubbing slow circles around a tiny leaf tattooed on Garthy’s skin. “Sandra Lynn really wanted to kiss you. She just wanted to wait till I was in the room, too.”

“Ah. I’d be very amenable to that.” The gold in Garthy’s eyes flares, the irises whirling. “And what about you, darling?”

Jawbone smiles wider and kisses them.

The whole room already smelled like Garthy, the breeze-on-a-hot-summer’s-day sweetness of peach mint cucumber, mixed with the cold shimmering scent of celestial, spiced with sea-salt and rum. But now it’s all Jawbone can taste, too, and it’s familiar and safe and good. The taste of the best memory he had for years, the one he’s never mentioned in any stories because the time he fucked the owner of pirate brothel on a floating city is the one time nothing bad happened to him, and all the wild stories he tells—the ones that make other people laugh and gasp in disbelief—he tells them because making entertainment out of them is how he deals with the awful fact that they happened. But this memory—this one he’s always kept close and private, his own to treasure.

But now he has Sandra Lynn to share it with, and that makes it even better. 

He breaks the kiss, and Garthy says, quietly, “I can’t remember the last time I felt that hungry for a simple kiss. _And_ I still feel like I’m going to be positively famished until Sandra Lynn kisses me. This is beyond belief.”

Jawbone chuckles. “You’re tellin’ me.”

“Will you please arrange a date for the three of us already?”

“Yeah, soon as I get home.” Jawbone lays his head on Garthy’s chest, looking up at them, and he links their fingers together, resting their hands on his own chest. “But I wanna stay in your life, Garthy. I don’t want this to happen just once or twice. I’m pretty sure Sandra Lynn feels the same way, too.” 

Garthy runs their free hand through Jawbone’s mane, their face tender with affection. “You want me to ask you to stay again, Jawbone O’Shaughnessey?”

“Yeah.” Jawbone’s voice comes out hoarse with too many years of wanting. “Ask me again.”

“Don’t leave me, darling,” Garthy says, bending their head to whisper it in Jawbone’s ear. “Promise me you’ll stay. I’ll take such good care of you and Sandra Lynn. We’re going to be so wonderful together. Just stay.”

* * *

When he gets home, he nearly trips over a stack of books in Ayda’s room, scattering them across the floor. She lets out a startled squawk and looks up at him from her desk. “Oh, good evening, Jawbone. My apologies. I’m a librarian, I should know better than to leave books lying around like that. They’re a health and safety hazard, of course.” She immediately gets up to remove the offending books.

“No, hey, kiddo, it’s okay.” Jawbone kneels to help her pick them up.

“How was Garthy?”

“Oh, yeah, they’re doin’ pretty well I think.” Jawbone smooths down his mane, suddenly aware that it might be looking messier than usual.

“They like to talk about you and Sandra Lynn a lot.” Ayda weighs down her arms with a bunch of heavy-looking tomes, but it doesn’t seem to cost her any effort as she stands up. She walks over to a shelf to slot them in. “Garthy and I haven’t really talked about their paramours much before, but now that Fig and I are dating I wanted to know more about how relationships work, so I’ve been asking them. I know they’re polyamorous, which I don’t think I am, but I still think I can learn a lot from them.”

“Yeah, I think so too,” Jawbone says, hovering behind her, waiting to hand her the remaining books once she’s done with the ones she’s putting in order. “I think we can all learn a lot from Garthy.”

“Do you think they will be spending more time here at Mordred Manor?”

“I sure hope so.”

Ayda nods. “I hope so too.” She takes the rest of the books from him. “I think you and Sandra Lynn make them very happy the way Fig makes me happy, and that’s fantastic and not something to be taken lightly.”

Jawbone smiles, remembering Garthy whispering in his ear. “They make us very happy too, kiddo.” 

He goes to his and Sandra Lynn’s bedroom, and Sandra Lynn is there, watching a video on her crystal. She looks up and sees him, still with the sappiest smile on his face, and she sits up straight. “Hey, handsome. You look happy. What’s up?”

“I kissed them,” Jawbone says, dazed from just the memory. “Lynn, it’s been fifteen years but it still feels just the same. I love them so goddamn much.”

She smiles back at him, reflecting his joy, and she jumps up from the bed and hugs him tight. “I’m so happy for you. I don’t even know how to tell you. Is this what those books you gave me called compersion? I thought it was kinda silly that they had to make a complicated new word for just feeling happy for your partner, but I think I get it now.”

Jawbone draws back, and he thinks he could just carry on smiling forever. “Yeah. That’s compersion, baby.” He strokes her arm. “Isn’t it beautiful? I love you so much.”

“I love you too.” She rests her head on his shoulder, and they start swaying together with no music, only the rhythm of their shared delight. “So you just kissed?”

“Yeah. We made out for a while. But I think we all feel like we wanna be together if we’re gonna have sex, right? All three of us?”

“I’d like that,” Sandra Lynn says, and Jawbone can feel her pulse race at the thought, and it makes his own heartbeat pick up, too. 

“Garthy’s dying to kiss you too, believe me,” he says, and he can feel, too, how that only makes it worse.

* * *

A few days later, Ayda knocks on the door of his study and presents him with a key.

“Good afternoon, Jawbone. This is a gift I’ve made for both you and Garthy. I’ve been searching for a way to thank you for how you’ve helped me, so I asked my father to teach me the magic that he used to create the door from here to my room at the Compass Points, and I’ve spent the past few weeks studying it. I finally managed to successfully cast the spell this morning. There’s now a door in a room just down the hallway from here that leads directly to Garthy’s chambers at the Gold Gardens, and I’ve just returned from giving them the other key. This way you won’t have to keep going through my room which Fig says will make things less awkward for everyone involved.”

Jawbone takes the key, stunned. It’s warm—maybe just from Ayda’s hand, or maybe from magic—and it’s midnight black, speckled all over with flakes of glimmering gold. It makes him think of Garthy’s eyes.

He closes his hand around it and feels so incredibly moved.

“Ayda, this is. Oh, kiddo, this is so much. Thank you! I’m blown away by this. Can I give you a hug?”

Ayda nods. He hugs her, misty-eyed, and she sighs. “I love making gifts for people now. It makes me feel extremely good when I see how much they value what I’ve given them.”

He puts the key to his chest, over his heart, and he can feel it emanating its warmth even through his shirt. Definitely magical. “I’ll cherish this gift till this house comes fallin’ down, Ayda. You’re brilliant.”

Ayda frowns. “I hope that won’t happen any time soon. I know this house does look rather dilapidated. Maybe I should get to work on some repairs.”

He pats her on the back. “You know, I think maybe that should be mine and Sandra Lynn’s responsibility. It keeps slippin’ my mind, but I’m sure we’ll get around to it soon, so don’t worry about it.”

Ayda wanders off, brow still furrowed.

He goes to the living room, where Sandra Lynn and Fig are hanging out, watching some reality TV show. “Hey, Sandra Lynn,” he says, from the door, and she comes over to him.

“What?” she says, still half-distracted by the screen. “You should join me and Fig on the sofa, this is getting intense and if Elisha gets eliminated I _will_ throw something at the TV. _And_ Fig might cast Shatter on it.”

“No, hey, Ayda made this for me, look.” He shows her the key.

“That’s beautiful. What…” Her eyes widen. “Wait. Is this what I think it is?”

“Are you all right with me taking you away from the TV right now so we can go see Garthy?”

“Yeah.” She turns around. “Fig, sorry to abandon you but—”

“Yeah, I know, Ayda said she was giving you the key today. Just go, I don’t wanna think about it. And if you come back to find the TV in a million pieces you’ll know why.”

“I don’t want any spoilers!” Sandra Lynn yells, and then she takes Jawbone’s hand, weaving their fingers together. “Right. Where are we going?”

Jawbone leads her to the room where Ayda said the door would be. She’s even added a little plaque to the room door that says in swirling gold script on black: _To the Gold Gardens_.

But when he pushes open the door, just the regular bedroom door, Garthy is already there, blinking at them with equal surprise.

“Oh, my darlings, hello! I was just about to come look for the two of you. Well. I came through from the Gold Gardens, and then I got caught up a bit in my own hesitation. I know the date we set isn’t for another few days, so I didn’t want to seem like I was suddenly intruding. But, seeing as you’re both here, I think maybe the moral is that we could all do with a bit more spontaneity in our lives?”

“It’s just that spontaneity has led me wrong so many times in the past,” Sandra Lynn says, wryly.

“I don’t think it’s leading you anywhere wrong right now, love,” Garthy says. Shirtless and glorious, their eyes twinkling with pleasure. “Now, do correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe I’ve been told that somebody _really_ wants to kiss me.”

And Sandra Lynn, her fingers still intertwined with Jawbone’s, steps forward for the kiss that she and Jawbone and Garthy—all _three_ of them—have been longing for and thinking about every second of every day, and he watches as their bodies meet and collide, the two people he loves the most in the world, and in that golden, spinning moment he thinks maybe the house could fall down around the three of them right this second, and not a single one of them would notice or care.

**Author's Note:**

> This is perhaps the horniest thing I’ve ever written that doesn’t feature any actual porn. I'm sorry, but that's the quarantine mood, baby! A porny coda may follow if there’s enough interest, though, so please do let me know if you are interested! ETA: [A PORNY CODA NOW EXISTS.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23758804)
> 
> As always, thanks so much for reading. Comments are truly appreciated and I'm [reluming](http://reluming.tumblr.com/) on tumblr if you wanna hit me up and chat, which would be extremely welcome!


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